


Gee Vivi, your mom lets you have TWO boyfriends?

by treewhisker



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Blood and Gore, Ghost Arthur (Mystery Skulls Animated), Multi, Please heed, its clearly marked, spooku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 14:40:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16348622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treewhisker/pseuds/treewhisker
Summary: Arthur dies, and it’s ugly.Hopefully something better comes out of it.





	Gee Vivi, your mom lets you have TWO boyfriends?

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this bc i can thanks  
> this is one of a few of my theories!  
> ao3 crashed six times while i was uploading this. i had to rewrite every tag and shit 6 times...

shoutout to msa discord server for enabling me 

* * *

 

Arthur couldn’t will himself to scream. It felt like he was floating, really, despite seeing the ceiling get further away from him with every second. Shock did wonders, hiding the debilitating fear of falling with the utter confusion of seeing Lewis.

 

Lewis. Oh, god, Lewis. 

 

How was he here? He was dead? Or, no, undead? That wasn’t even possible. It made absolutely no sense. Arthur thought Lewis was  _ missing, _ not dead.  _ And why would Lewis kill him? _

 

Arthur couldn’t really help but internalize the whispers of  _ your fault, you did this, it doesn’t matter why, it’s your fault… _

 

And then he struck the ground.

 

* * *

Lewis floated down, despair in his eyes as he gazed upon his once best friend’s crumpled form. His heart was a breath away from shattering, and Lewis was too scared to touch it from fear of fading. But when he got close…

 

( **_TRIGGER START_ ** )

 

Arthur had a hole straight through his central torso, likely grazing his lungs and breaking bones along the way. He was suspended awkwardly, spine contorted oddly from falling onto the stalagmites. His left arm  _ \- robotic, why was it robotic? -  _ hung limp in the air, while his right had fallen to rest on the earth below. His eyes, despite being dull with exhaustion in life, seemed even duller than before, sunken into his still terrified and confused face. Lewis hated that he then saw the deep circles beneath Arthur’s eyes, the pale pallor of his skin, his skinny -  _ much skinnier than before  _ \- frame. 

 

Is this what guilt had done to him?

 

Is this… emptiness, this grief, what Lewis was supposed to feel?

( ** _TRIGGER END_** )

* * *

Arthur felt a deep pulsing all around him. He could feel deep terror, but not much else, the feeling running through him shouting  _ Danger!  _ despite there being none. Everything was dark, and he couldn’t hear anything aside from the rhythmic pulse of… something. 

 

… He opened his eyes.

 

Arthur was on the ground, it seemed. He sat up, despite the harsh ache in his chest, and looked at his hands.

 

Oh, no. Oh  _ hell _ no. 

 

His hands were clawed, and his once pale skin had turned to an almost red-orange, like the color of falling leaves. Arthur could feel the pulse coming from his chest, but when he looked down, a floating star was thumping right in front of… in front of… a gaping  _ hole. _ On  _ HIM! _

 

Arthur stood quickly, rocking on unsteady feet. “ **L-** L _ e _ w i **s** ?” He called, voice garbled and unsteady. Terror gripped him tighter, claws tightening around his throat, and he crouched down. He put his head to the ‘cave’ floor, claws clutching his hair, and called again.

 

“ **L** **_E_ ** _ W _ **I** **_S_ ** ?” 

 

* * *

Lewis was about to leave when he heard the call.

 

It wasn’t in a natural tone, no. It sounded distorted and scratchy, like someone’s first time speaking. It sounded like…

 

_ Lewis’ heart fluttered. _

 

Lewis floated back into the chamber where they both had met their ends, and looked down. Below him, Arthur crouched on the ground, a good meter from where Lewis had last seen him. Lewis went down, being quiet so as to not alert Arthur right away. 

 

Arthur looked… different. Death would do that to you, sure, but this was a whole other level. He had his mechanical arm, still, although it was a deep scarlet hue. His typical clothes, the ones he’d died in, remained. Claws dug into Arthur’s hair, which seemed to have sprouted two ram horns. Tiny, tiny wings of bone trembled in fear. 

 

“Arthur,” Lewis murmured, placing a hand on the new-ghost’s back. Strange… Lewis couldn’t feel  _ any  _ of the malice from before. “Arthur.”

 

“L- **e** _ w _ i **_s_ ** …” Arthur hissed, not angrily, but more… in fear. Arthur looked up to Lewis, coming out of his curled position to show a beating purple-ish red heart and black sclera. 

 

“Arthur. I need you to calm down so I can ask you some questions.” Lewis said firmly, making sure Arthur stayed upright and aware. It took some time, just the two of them in that accursed cave, for Arthur’s form to stop flickering madly and for his ‘breaths’ to calm.

 

“I’m ready,” Arthur mumbled, focusing on keeping his voice steady and even. He was seated next to Lewis by a stalagmite.

 

“Why did you kill me?”

 

Arthur laughed humorlessly. “I didn’t even know you were dead until you killed me,” he responded, causing a brief spark of anger from Lewis. “Seriously. I don’t know why you think I killed you. I thought… we  _ all  _ thought you were missing.” 

 

“What do you remember from the  _ cave. _ ” Lewis ground out, trying to keep his patience. He had just killed someone, after all, he may as well be patient.

 

“Well… You, me, Viv, and Mystery went into it. Viv and Mystery went one way, we went the other. We kept going higher, and then it gets fuzzy. The next thing I know, Viv doesn’t react to your name, I’m down an arm, and you’re on the missing person’s list.” Arthur recounted, brows furrowed in concentration. “I’ve been looking for you. Viv doesn’t really get why, but she goes with it. She… she really forgot you. I have no idea how.”

 

“It makes sense as to why she didn’t react to me…” Lewis admitted, “But you killed me in that cave. I figured it was jealousy. Am I wrong?”

 

“Jealousy?” Arthur frowned, looking at Lewis incredulously, “I was never jealous. Sometimes I felt left out, but I was happy for you guys. Even if…”

 

Lewis’ eye lights narrowed. “Even if.” 

 

Arthur noted the way it was posed more as a threat than a question. “Even… if…” he stuttered out, form flickering a little, “I couldn’t be with the two of you. “I loved- love the both of you. But I was happy to see you two happy. I never would have ever killed you.” He’s rambling now, but Lewis didn’t stop him. “I don’t know why Mystery ripped my arm off—  _ oh my god my dog ripped my arm off. _ How did I not remember that? No wonder I was anxious around him!” 

 

“Arthur.” Lewis said firmly, placing a hand on Arthur’s shoulder to ground him. His… friend nodded, and continued. 

 

“So I guess he ripped my arm off. I don’t know why that’s so easy to accept. But… if anyone knows what happened, it’s probably him. That, or we dive into my memories and nightmares. But nightmares are stupid anyways,” Arthur huffed, the claws of his metal arm tapping on the ground habitually. 

 

“Okay. We’ll… we’ll talk to him,” Lewis accepted, before standing and pulling Arthur to his feet. “I noticed… I noticed your little pins, there,” he pointed to the small little flag next to his star badge, as well as a purple flower. 

 

“Y-yeah,” Arthur fiddled with his hands, “I got it… after my surgery. I just wanted something to showcase. And the flower… I felt like the star was Viv, the flag was me, and the skull was Mystery. You needed something. So I got the flower.” 

 

Lewis’ eyes seemed to morph like they were smiling. “I’m glad. And… about why you didn’t hate me…”

 

Arthur’s nervous fiddling increased. “You can forget about that, if you want. I haven’t gone for Viv. I didn’t want to, it’d be horrible to you and it just wouldn’t be the  _ same _ without you. You guys can just… go back to your lovey-dovey ways.”

 

“We’re going to talk with Vivi. We aren’t ignoring this,” Lewis responded softly, “And speaking of, let’s go.”

 

* * *

When the two ghosts exited the truck, both of them were understandably confused. Tree-Girl  _ (Shiro-whatsit? Lewis thought) _ was shot, just kind of lying on the ground. Mystery was a bigass fox, to which Arthur gave a ‘I knew it!’ And Vivi was laying on the ground, seemingly shocked. She sat up, looking in tandem with Mystery towards the ghosts. 

 

Lewis was supporting Arthur, who seemed to be relearning how to float-walk, and he had his normal, human face on, aside from the sclera and his ribs. Vivi felt recognition stir in her chest. “Lewis…?” she murmured, the memories coming back in a flood. Her nose bled, and she felt a little dizzy, but she ran to embrace her (once?) boyfriend. 

 

“Vivi.” Lewis smiled, relieved. His heart was full, again, only a few cracks left. “Vivi, we need to talk first. You, me, and Arthur.”

 

* * *

“Wait, let me get this right,” Vivi sighed, a  _ ‘I did not sign up for this’ _ expression written on her face. “So, Arthur got possessed or something and killed my boyfriend. Then my boyfriend came back and killed Arthur. And also Mystery is a  _ giant freaking kitsune? _ ” 

 

“That’s about right,” Arthur smiled weakly, shrinking back. 

 

“And the reason why, Arthur?” Lewis prodded, not unkindly.

 

“B-because…” Arthur began slowly, still extremely nervous, “I loved you both then, and I still do. But I was lonely. And it latched onto that, I guess.”

 

“So I have two ghost boyfriends,” Vivi nodded sagely.

 

“Ye-what?” Arthur squeaked, small sparks shooting from his body in his shock.

 

“I guess so.” Lewis nods in the same manner. 

 

“What? What?” Arthur just stutters, confused.

 

“Arthur.” Vivi scolds, “we love you too, goofball.”

 

* * *

‘Life’ as a ghost was fucking weird. First of all, not eating. Arthur missed food. And corporeality. Lewis had been helping him learn the ropes, so he could touch some things, but it was taking a lot of practice. 

 

It was also weird adjusting to something he never thought he’d have. Not one, but  _ two _ partners, and both of the ones he’d loved for years. 

 

It was… good. Things were good.

 

Who knew he’d have to die for that?

**Author's Note:**

> review pls?


End file.
